PDF was built by Adobe to be a portable format that was easy to create and carry around. Smartphones were also created to be mobile and easy to carry around. What better way to read PDF books and documents than on your Android smartphone? For this, you will need a PDF reader app for Android smartphone or tablet.
So what are we looking for in PDF readers? It should be able to handle small and large PDF files and eBooks with ease. But that’s not all. There are other essential features like bookmarking, sharing, highlighting, commenting, annotating, and sometimes, filling forms and signing documents too.
Let’s take a look at some of the best PDF reader apps available on the Android platform and see how they differ from each other.
Adobe pioneered the PDF format and is largely considered to be the default authority with anything that has to do with PDF files. Acrobat Reader is a free Android app that is as robust as it gets.
Acrobat Reader will let you import PDF files from a number of sources like local storage, cloud storage, and eMails. You can annotate PDF docs, comment on specific sections, highlight or bookmark paragraphs/pages that you like, and also fill in and sign forms. It also handles printing PDF files.
Adobe Acrobat is one of the most complete PDF reader apps for Android. The app comes with in-app purchases but no ads. It is free to use but you will have to subscribe to advanced features like full-text editing, Adobe cloud storage, and more.
Foxit Mobile PDF is not just a PDF reader but also an editor. It is also one of the most popular alternatives to Adobe’s Acrobat Reader. Foxit Dev team came up with the idea of cPDFs which stands for connected PDFs. This provides a collaborative environment for users to create, edit, share, comment, and annotate in a friendly atmosphere.
Like Adobe, this free PDF reader for Android supports cloud storage, scan to convert, signing and filling forms, annotation, and even playing audio and video files linked within PDF files. Advanced options, with subscription, converting documents, editing them, and collaborating on them.
Xodo PDF Reader is what I am using personally on my Android smartphone. Where Adobe offers a professional-looking UI and Foxit takes a rather bland approach, Xodo PDF Reader looks good and functions smoothly. Annotation involves more colors and shapes (think circles, squares, arrows, and so on) when compared to the competition.
One of the features is a tab-like format where you can open more than one PDF file on a tablet at once. Much like modern-day browsers. This is more suitable for tablets with wider screens but works on smartphones too. Other features include filling forms, signing docs, and support for cloud storage sites.
Two other features that not every PDF viewer app comes with are night mode and sleep mode for those who like to read before going to bed. Advanced features include converting images and collaborating with others.
Xodo PDF Reader is a free Android PDF reader and there are no ads whatsoever. It makes it even more awesome.
eBook Droid took a leaf out of Apple’s iBooks and create a virtual, dusty, and full of webs bookshelf. Looks cool. It comes with support for a number of book formats like PDF, WPS, DjVu, FB2, CBR, MOBI, RTF, and more. More suitable for avid readers who like download and reading content like books, comics, etc.
More suitable for book lovers rather than business users or productivity enthusiasts, eBook Droid is the best PDF reader for Android if you want to customize your book reading experience. You can cut or crop margins, change layout and zoom in, automatic bookmarking, and fun annotation tools. You can use continuous flow, two-column or one-column layout based on your reading preferences.
eBook Droid is a free PDF reader with no ads or in-app purchases.
ezPDF Reader is one of the oldest PDF reader apps on the Play Store. While the competition has increased since its heydays, ezPDF Reader still made the list because there is also support for some additional formats like EPUB along with PDF files.
You can play audio and video files plus there you can also view GIF files. ezPDF Reader’s support for multiple file formats is only matched by its PDF file features like annotation, highlighting, commenting, filling forms and signing, and image editing. There are plenty of viewing options available to satisfy most of your reading habits.
ezPDF Reader will cost you $3.49 although there is a trial version that you can try before you buy.
Note: If you have a phone with a notch, chances are you won’t be able to click on some editing tools.
Another PDF reader from the house of Google but this time, it is an entire marketplace. Play Books is Google’s answer to Amazon’s Kindle reader which is the market leader right now. Play Books will not only let you buy eBooks and audiobooks but also let you upload your personal collection in the cloud for free. You can now carry your favorite and read them wherever you want.
You can read, search, highlight, take notes, share, and toggle the night mode on when you are reading the Winds of Winter in the bed. Play Books also supports a number of other formats like comic books, MOBI, EPUB, and so on.
No ads or subscription model, but the app still lacks several features we saw earlier above. Play Books’ main selling point is the marketplace and unlimited free PDF uploads it allows.
Looking for a beautiful PDF reader with the looks to die for? Download and install Moon+Reader for viewing PDF files. I like the ability to change pages with the volume button or camera! There is also support for annotation, highlighting, and a built-in dictionary with language support.
Like some other apps we discussed above, Moon+ Reader supports a number of formats like EPUB, MOBI, CBR, CBZ, and many more. Moon+ Reader really lets you customize your reading experience multiple options for screen viewing and orientation (5 scrolling modes), text alignment and placement, and a functional bookshelf with details like author names, tags, and categories.
If you are looking for something flexible and customizable, Moon+ Reader is the best PDF reader for Android in its category. The pro version will remove ads, allow text-to-speech function, more themes, Bluetooth control, advanced annotations and sharing support.
The list of PDF reader apps for Android cannot be complete without an open-source entry. muPDF is an open-source PDF reader app that is free of ads and will never steal your data. For such a light-weight app, muPDF supports a number of formats including PDF, EPUB, and CBZ.
It was designed to be a modular app meaning if you are nursing a developer in you, then you can add features to muPDF yourself. It does lack advanced features like form filling and signing, editing, and annotations but not all of us are looking for them anyway.
When one app can do multiple jobs, why choose to clutter your menu area, right? You might just need a PDF reading app, but what if you have to access a word doc, slide or an excel sheet. WPS office combines all these features and lets you open most of these file formats without any hassle.
Talking about what the app can do overall, you can majorly open any file be it a Microsoft Office, Google Doc, Adobe PDF, and even OpenOffice. There is also cloud support, so you can easily back-up all your documents on Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive, etc. Now coming to PDFs, you can easily open any PDF file in the app. Not only that, there is also an option to convert any Word, Excel or Powerpoint document to PDF. There is an added feature to scan documents and convert them to PDF and images. In addition to that, there is also a mobile view, this might not sound great, but it makes the PDF very readable, so the hassle of zooming in all the time is eliminated. Multiple annotation options are also available for free, so you can highlight text or an antre area
You can also add a PDF signature, convert to a word document, PPT or Excel and also add stamps on documents, File compression but that is a Pro feature.
Although this app is mostly used by a lot of book lovers, it is a very good app to go through PDFs as well. It detects all your PDFs and lists them in a clean UI. In addition to this, there are no ads, so you can read whatever you want in peace. On the menu, you can easily find all the documents or books you’re currently reading. You can add content to favorites so that it’s easier to find and also add them to the “to read” section for a later time.
A feature that I found interesting was the segregation of all the books and documents in one format, so rather than searching the file name, you can simply toggle this section. Although the app has auto back-up you can create a manual backup anytime you want. There are multiple formatting and color settings as well as you can flip the page and enable page margins. If you like to read with dark mode, you have an option to not only choose that but also other modes like night contrast, sepia, console, etc.
There are quite a few PDF reader apps available on the Play Store and which you choose will depend on your needs and requirements. If you are integrated deep within the Adobe ecosystem, you know you need Acrobat Reader. Looking for something as robust the Adobe but cheaper, Foxit got your back.
Looking for a free alternative with similar features, Xodo is also ad-free. If you also like to read comic books and want something that can handle pretty much anything you throw at it, Moon+ Reader and eBook Droid will help you out.
So, which one are you using and why?
Gaurav is an editor here at TechWiser but also contributes as a writer. He has more than 10 years of experience as a writer and has written how-to guides, comparisons, listicles, and in-depth explainers on Windows, Android, web, and cloud apps, and the Apple ecosystem. He loves tinkering with new gadgets and learning about new happenings in the tech world. He has previously worked on Guiding Tech, Make Tech Easier, and other prominent tech blogs and has over 1000+ articles that have been read over 50 million times.
